Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)From netbooks I owned HTC Shift, Asus eee 1000HA and Asus eee 1002HA. I tried out my friends Acer Aspire 1, HP mini 2133 too. So I know how to compare and from my point of view this is excellent laptop. Yes, I call it laptop. Sony calls it's P-series a laptop too, but I think sony p-series is a toy, and cannot replace my laptop, while hp mini 2140 surely can.
Technically it's like most other netbooks on the market: intel atom n270 1.6 Ghz 533mhz FSB, 1-2GB RAM, 160GB HDD, GMA 950 graphics, Wi-Fi b/g/n(draft), BT 2.0+EDR, 10/100/1000 ethernet. It has some strange resolution, non-standart 1024x576 instead of 1024x600. But I didn't notice much difference because of those 24 pixels. Perhaps it was the only way to keep it inside the same chassis as hp mini 2133. Screen is glossy, it could be also good and bad thing about this model. They made very minor changes from old chassis. One is less noticeable but yet important change is side vent design. Side vent holes were placed vertically in old 2133 and as a result, when you place it on soft surface they can be covered from bottom. In 2140 they placed them horizontally, and it increases the side vent clearance from the floor and it has more space at the bottom and less chances to be covered when placed on soft surface. You better check pictures.
Vista runs fine on it.
I've been searching a lot, read many reviews and ended up with a few models to choose from before buying 2140:
Sony P series
Kohjinsha SX
Asus eee 1000HE
HP mini 2140
Sony was out because of it's style. It's more suitable who those who don't care much about productivity but rather for style and look. Yes it looks perfect, it's glamor but I don't think I'd be able to accomplish my daily tasks on it.
Kohjinsha SX is still my favorite one, but it's price is very high. HP wins with it's price here.
Asus eee 1000HE has new cpu intel atom n280, the only netbook for the moment that can afford it. Unfortunately they placed it all in almost the same chassis as in 1000HA, which looks cheap. All plastic. Because of the same reason I skipped over samsung nc 10 and acer aspire 1.
In 2140 improved screen size with the same chassis as it's predecessor 2133. They moved speakers to the bottom of the screen and made screen bigger, while keeping the chassis same size.
I was a bit confused why they didn't put n280 in it. Perhaps it takes too long in huge companies like HP to do some design changes and implement latest technologies in their products.
I had some doubts about this model. It's predecessor 2133 was very poor in means of heat and power consumption and noise. It was awful. I was afraid that this model will repeat those mistakes. But it uses intel atom n270 instead of VIA in 2133 which has less power consumption. So i decided to give it a try.
After buying this thing I found out that:
BAD THINGS FIRST:
1) It cannot be easily upgraded. In order to charge it with SSD I would probably have to disassemble it. eee solves it much easier. (Update: recently, when upgrading it to SSD I found out that it's not that easy, you just got to be careful when pulling keyboard in order to reach disk drive).
2) Battery is not as long as eee or samsung nc. Extra 6 cell battery looks ugly and makes 2140 non-transportable
3) Screen is a bit too high brightness. You need to adjust brightness from control panel to make it normal. It's fixable.
4) Weight is not very well balanced. Back side is heavier than front
5) Charger is big enough, bigger than eee's charger. It's a brick like in normal laptop.
6) Doesn't include any accessories but charger, CDs and manual. At least one cheap case would be fine, before I buy normal case. All eee have slim case in box.
GOOD THINGS
1) it has the best keyboard in the world. I'm so surprised with it's superior quality and comfort that I think it's even more comfortable for me to type on HP mini 2140 than on desktop keyboard or any other laptop/umpc/netbook keyboards (I tried a lot).
2) excellent design. comparable to sony viao, maybe better but not worse than that. It doesn't look like budget netbook. HP looks like >1000$ model for much less price.
3) It's fully functional laptop. It has normal resolution (1024x576) for 10'' screen. I do not understand how one can put 1280x768 on 8'' screen like sony did. You can't see anything but videos on sony p-series screen.
4) It has express card 54 slot, which many comparable netbooks doesn't have. I will place 3G card in it. I don't like 3G card pulling out of USB port, prefer it to be mostly hidden in express slot.
5) It still weights only ~1.2kg. SSD version maybe even lighter
4) this model is much cooler, quiter and battery lasts longer than on hp mini 2133. With web browsing, wi-fi on you can get up-to 3.5 hours. More intensive applications - 2.5-3 hours. I tried it with the following applications running: SQL developer, Netbeans IDE, Outlook, google chrome with 3-4 tabs open while windows update installing updates in the background and heavy network and HDD IO and it lasted about 2 hours. I think it's OK. Not as much as eee but OK.
5) I read in reviews that some people were complaining about touchpad, and that buttons are not comfortably placed. I didn't notice that. I think they did a good compromise by placing buttons on the left and right sides of the touchpad, while keeping touchpad itself big enough. Buttons are comfortable for me.
6) It's built up very good. Feels like hp mini 2140 is one solid peace of metal and plastic.
6) Ergonomics. Everything seems to be there where you expected it to be. Every inch is used very effectively, no wasted space here, as a result dimension are very good, looks much smaller than eee pc 1000 series.
7) hp drive guide 3d technology, maybe not important for most of the people, but it's good one. Parks HDD headers when it senses movement or falling. Can save data one day, or maybe not :) It depends.
8) Finally!!! HP engineers managed to optimize OS and not overload it with HP software and removed loads of icons from tray and startup programs that used to be in all OS's preinstalled by HP and other vendors. They did a good job this time, and I spent less time optimizing and updating OS.
Being honest I would give this laptop 4.5, since I didn't have such a chance I choosed to give it 5 instead of 4.
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EDIT: 27 Sep 2009
After half year of use I can say that this netbook is very durable. Yesterday, The child hardly pressed on the lid and on the keyboard while netbook was open and left unattended. As a result lid opened up on 180 degrees though normally lid does not open more than 130 degrees (it's mechanically blocked). There was a crack noise and lid did not close after that. I thought that plastic top was broken but actually only metal frame was damaged. I closed the lid, pressed it hard several times, so that metal frame becomes to it's original state and it is fine now. Lid opens and closes normally, as it was before. Plastic frame did not crack, and lid movement is still solid. No visible evidence of recent operation.
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Click here for more information about HP 2140 Mini-Note - Atom N270 / 1.6 GHz - RAM 2 GB - HDD 160 GB - GMA 950 - Gigabit Ethernet - WLAN : Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, 802.11 a/b/g/n (draft) - Vista Home Basic - 10.1" Widescreen TFT - camera - Smart Buy
